Last week was busy. Jojo died on Monday, from what we thought was a spider bite. We found the spiders on Tuesday, two brown recluses. We had moved Mic out of the cage on Monday night, suspecting correctly that the culprit for Jojo’s death might still be at large in the cage. He was in a smaller enclosure, in the garage, all day Tuesday and Wednesday. He was eating, but not eating well, and he wasn’t talking whereas normally he is super talkative. Wednesday afternoon Mic fell off his perch, dead. We had no idea why, but thought maybe we had been wrong about the spider bite and that it had been a virus or bacteria, that killed Jojo and now Mic. We got in touch with several cockatoo experts and rescues and they all said to bring Sam, our third moluccan cockatoo, who had lived right next to Mic and Jojo, inside the house to keep him warm in case he was battling an invisible illness as well. We did that, and kept an eye on Sam. We also started all the birds at Paradise Gardens on a vaccine recommended by several of the vets we talked to.

On Thursday we tried to send Mic and Jojo’s bodies to Panama City for an autopsy to find out what might have killed them and be able to better protect the rest of our birds (and other animals). No go. The airline wouldn’t take dead birds. Friday Jen had to go to Panama City anyway, to renew her passport, so she took the bodies along with her (frozen and on ice). The doctor who looked at their bodies also ran some blood tests and other tests, and we finally heard back today.

Jojo did die of a spider bite, probably the brown recluses that we found under her perch. Mic’s autopsy showed that he had nothing wrong with him. Apparently cockatoos are easily stressed and can die from stress without any other causes or symptoms. And since cockatoos mate for life, Jojo’s death was sure to have caused Mic a lot of stress. Even when Jojo was sick we noticed Mic freaking out, acting strange… but we thought that of course, like anyone who loses a loved one, he would be upset but survive. Apparently not. He died of heartbreak.